Freelander 1 Hard to get into gear

Best to start from the beginning, Freelander 2.0d, was hard to get into gear. Sometimes the easiest way was to turn engine off and engage gear then restart. Another problem was when you had foot right down on clutch, the clutch wasn't fully disengaging.

Eventually when step daughter was driving she pressed the clutch down and it stayed on the floor. Slave cylinder was in bits

Changed master cylinder and slave cylinder complete with the mounting bracket and the fault was still there.

So now I have removed gearbox. While the gearbox was off, I noticed the thrust bearing lever was stiff. I removed this and freed it all up before replacing gearbox.

Clutch was nearly gone and thrust bearing was knackered, so changed them.

Put everything back together and took the car for a test drive. Still very hard to get into gear most of the time and the biting point is still on the floor. At least now the clutch is disengaging fully.

I did notice that when someone presses the clutch there is a lot of movement in the bracket holding the slave cylinder and the slave cylinder moves towards the front of the car, not just the push rod actuating.

Now before I go completely insane, could someone please help and diagnose the problem?

Cheers Luke

ps, is 3 days to change a clutch on a freelander as slow as I think it was?

The slave bracket is a known week point, especially if the release lever is or has been stiff. Best bet is to replace the bracket and make sure you push the slave piston fully into the cylinder at the same time. This action will help bleed air out of the fluid lines

Will have a look at that tomorrow, the bracket should be ok because I changed that before the clutch.

Is there anyway to strengthen the bracket to stop it bending and breaking? By now someone must of thought of a way to fix this weak point.

llluke1 said:

Will have a look at that tomorrow, the bracket should be ok because I changed that before the clutch.
Is there anyway to strengthen the bracket to stop it bending and breaking? By now someone must of thought of a way to fix this weak point.

Click to expand...

Some of the brackets for sale are rubbish and will bend easily. If yours is doing that then buy an original from Rimmers or the like.
3 days is about the time it took me so yes rubbish slow.
I had the same issue with the clutch catching on the floor after changing but it was like that before too. My slave was OK but the master had a lot of slack so I remade the end that hooks over the clutch pedal and it was fine after that. Check out this thread half way down the page
https://www.landyzone.co.uk/land-rover/k-series-clutch-replacement.296104/page-3

Hi, this thread might help you. https://www.landyzone.co.uk/land-rover/clutch-biting-point.72246//

There's a link further down to a youtube video of a repair to the slave cylinder bracket. I'm sure I've also seen another post of a geezer that shored up the bracket before it broke with threaded rod and some other ingenuity. There's also a thread here on freeing up the release lever

https://www.landyzone.co.uk/land-rover/freelander-clutch-bracket-cylinder-help.113503/